Surgical Treatment of Ascending Aortic Pathology

Among the first 10,200 valvular replacements performed in our unit, 288 complex repairs of the ascending aorta were done for various aortic pathology. Aneurysms of the ascending aorta were the most frequent; 53 supracoronary artery aneurysms with aortic valvular insufficiency were treated by the separate replacement of the aortic valve and the supracoronary ascending aorta; 206 annulo-aortic ectasia had total and combined replacement of the ascending aorta and the aortic valve with a personal modification of the Bentall's technique using an 8-mm diameter Dacron graft to perform the reimplantation of the coronary arteries on the composite aortic grafts. The operative mortality for the first 100 patients was 4% and for the entire 206 patients, 6%. Late mortality during a follow-up period ranging from 18 months to 8 years was 11%. The actuarial survival rate at 8 years is 75%; 25 patients restudied by angiography demonstrated satisfactory results with neither stenosis nor aneurysm on the coronary graft but a recurrent or persisting chronic distal aortic dissection in four patients. In 26 cases of aortic valvular endocarditis, large abscesses of the aortic annulus involved the aortic root. In 11, the aortic repair consisted of the insertion of a subcoronary valved conduit (two early deaths, two late deaths, one reoperation, seven good results--maximum follow-up of eight years). Twelve patients had a supracoronary valved conduit with four early deaths, one late death, and two reoperations; seven are alive and well, two to six years later. Three patients previously operated had a left ventricular abdominal aorta valved conduit; two of them are alive and well up to six years later. In three patients with iterative aortic paravalvular leak (recurring three or four times), ablation of the aortic insufficiency was obtained by interposition of a composite valved graft in the ascending aorta.